Finance Committee staffers know their tax law

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As the top aide on the Senate Finance Committee, Sullivan, a former tax attorney and one-time law firm clerk for Hillary Rodham Clinton, is a major fiscal policy power player.

Sullivan, who joined the committee in 1999 as chief tax counsel, has seen the committee through six years of President Bush’s tax cuts, before finally getting a chance to be in the majority and help set the agenda.

A native of Little Rock, Ark., Sullivan has a degree in accounting from Baylor University and a law degree from the University of Texas.

Before his stint on Capitol Hill, Sullivan worked as a tax lawyer for the law firm Vinson & Elkins.

William Dauster

Majority deputy staff director and general counsel

A longtime veteran of the Senate Budget Committee, Dauster landed at the Finance Committee in 2003 after a series of stints on and off the Hill.

In between, he worked as an economic aide in the Clinton White House and as legislative director for Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.).

A former lawyer at the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Dauster has a master’s degree in economics from the University of Southern California and a law degree from Columbia University.

An author, he’s also written several books on Senate procedure.

Dauster is married to Ellen Weintraub, a member of the Federal Election Commission, and lives in Maryland. They have three children.

Kolan Davis

Minority staff director and chief counsel

A longtime committee aide, Davis is one of Sen. Chuck Grassley’s most trusted advisers.

Previously, Davis worked with the Iowa Republican as chief counsel at the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts.

As one of the lead negotiators in President Bush’s 2001 tax cut package and in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, Davis has had a hand in some of the Republicans’ biggest fiscal accomplishments of the past decade.

Davis has a degree in history from the University of Dallas and a law degree from Indiana University.

Mark Prater

Minority deputy staff director and chief tax counsel

Grassley’s point man on taxes, Prater has been with the Finance Committee since 1990 and has been involved with every tax bill since.

He was elevated to chief Republican tax counsel in 1994.

A native of Portland, Ore., Prater earned his B.A. from Portland State University in 1981. Later, he earned a law degree from Willamette University College of Law and a Master of Laws degree from the University of Florida in 1987.